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Robert L. Stewart (Brigadier
General,
USA,
Ret.), NASA Astronaut (former)
PERSONAL DATA: Born
August 13, 1942, in Washington D.C. Married. Two children. His interests
include woodworking, photography and skiing.
EDUCATION: Graduated
from
Hattiesburg
High School,
Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in 1960; received a bachelor of science degree
in Mathematics from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1964, and
a master of science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of
Texas at Arlington, in 1972.
ORGANIZATIONS:
Member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Association of Space
Explorers past member of Phi Eta Sigma, and the Scabbard and Blade
(military honor society).
SPECIAL HONORS:
Awarded Army Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service
Medal, 2 Legion of Merit, 4 Distinguished Flying Crossed, a Bronze Star,
a Meritorious Service Medal, 33 Air Medals, the Army Commendation Medal
with Oak Leaf Cluster and ""V"" Device, 2 Purple Hearts, the National
Defense Service Medal, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the U.S.
and Vietnamese
Vietnam
Service Medals, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry; also Army
Aviation of the Year, 1984, AHS Feinberg Memorial Award, AIAA Oberth
Award. Recipient of NASA Space Flight Medal (1984 & 1985).
EXPERIENCE: Stewart
entered on active duty with the United States Army in May 1964 and was
assigned as an air defense artillery director at the 32nd NORAD Region
Headquarters (SAGE), Gunter Air Force Base, Alabama. In July 1966, after
completing rotary wing training at
Ft.
Wolters, Texas, and Ft. Rucker,
Alabama, he was
designated an Army aviator. He flew 1,035
hours combat time
from August 1966 to 1967, primarily as a fire team leader in the armed
helicopter platoon of ""A"" Company, 101st Aviation Battalion (redesignated
336th Assault Helicopter Company). He was an instructor pilot at the
U.S. Army Primary Helicopter School -- serving 1 year in the pre-
solo/primary-1 phase of instruction and about 6 months as commander of
methods of instruction flight III, training rated aviators to become
instructor pilots. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army's Air Defense
School's Air Defense Officers Advanced Course and Guided Missile Systems
Officers Course. Stewart served in Seoul, Korea, from 1972 to 1973, with
the 309th Aviation Battalion (Combat) as a battalion operations officer
and battalion executive officer. He next attended the U.S. Naval Test
Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland, completing the Rotary Wing
Test Pilot Course in 1974, and was then assigned as an experimental test
pilot to the U.S. Army Aviation Engineering Flight Activity at Edwards
Air Force Base, California. His duties there included being chief of the
integrated systems test division, as well as participating in
engineering flight tests of UH-1 and AH-1 helicopters and U-21 and OV-1
fixed wing aircraft, serving as project officer and senior test pilot on
the Hughes YAH-64 advanced attack helicopter during government
competitive testing; and participation with Sikorsky Aircraft test
pilots in developing an electronic automatic flight control system for
the new Army transport helicopter -- the UH-60A Black Hawk. He has
military and civilian experience in 38 types of airplanes and
helicopters and logged approximately 6,000 hours total flight time.
NASA EXPERIENCE:
Stewart became a NASA Astronaut in August 1979. His technical duties in
the astronaut office have included testing and evaluation of the entry
flight control systems for STS-1 (the first Space Shuttle orbital
mission), ascent abort procedures development, and payload coordination.
He also served as support crewman for STS-4, and Ascent/Orbit CAPCOM for
STS-5. He served as a mission specialist on
STS-41B
in 1984 and
STS-51J in
1985, and has logged a total of 289 hours in space, including
approximately 12 hours of EVA operations.
In 1986, while in
training for his scheduled third flight to be know as 61-K, Col Stewart
was selected by the Army for promotion to Brigadier General. Upon
accepting this promotion General Stewart was reassigned from NASA to be
the Deputy Commanding General, US Army Strategic Defense Command, in
Huntsville, Alabama. In this capacity General Stewart managed research
efforts in developing ballistic missile defense technology. In 1989, he
was reassigned as the Director of Plans, US Space Command, Colorado
Springs, CO. General Stewart retired from the Army in 1992 and currently
makes his home in Woodland Park, Co. He is presently employed as
Director, Advanced Programs, Nichols Research Corporation, Colorado
Springs, CO.
SPACE FLIGHT
EXPERIENCE:
STS-41B
Challenger (February 3-11, 1984) was launched from
Kennedy Space
Center, Florida, and returned to land there 8-days later. During the
mission, Stewart and McCandless participated in two extravehicular
activities (EVA's) to conduct first flight evaluations of the Manned
Maneuvering Units (MMU's). These EVA's represented man's first
untethered operations from a spacecraft in flight.
STS-51J
Atlantis (October 3-7, 1985) was launched from
Kennedy Space Center,
Florida, and after 98 hours of orbital operations returned to land at
Edwards Air Force Base, California. It was the second Space Shuttle
Department of Defense mission, and the maiden voyage of Atlantis,
the final Orbiter in the Shuttle fleet. During the mission he was
responsible for a number of on-orbit activities.
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